Thursday we took Chance to the Meyer Developmental Center at TCH to have him monitor regarding him not crawling and pulling himself up to a sitting position. Our pediatrician has been a little concerned about his late progress in a few areas and to put all of our minds at ease, she wanted us to have him looked at by a developmental specialists. Coming to terms that you have to take your child to a developmental specialists is EXTREMELY difficult. Never in a million years, do parents think that "their" child will have anything developmentally wrong. But we wanted to get anything that was going on with our sweet Blue Wee One taken care of immediately. So we saw Dr. V (who is the head of the Meyer Center...cannot get much better then that) and with me working at Baylor, we did not have to be on a waiting list, so we got an appointment right away. He did so well and was such a trooper. Dr. V came in along with 2 residents in training to become Pediatricians, to learn what signs to look for in situations like this and to learn to ALWAYS listen to the parents. He was a little ham for them at the beginning and did everything that she asked him to do with a big smile in his face. He was very responsive to all of her requests such as putting a ball in a cup, handing her something when asked, giving high 5's, pointing to things, etc. She was very impressed with how outgoing and friendly he is and assured us that he is developing intellectually right in track. As he put it....he will go to school, graduate from college and make money if he wants to. He could stand to say a few more words then just Momma and Dada, but he is babbling and wants to talk so bad...so we should not have anything to worry about there. After about 30 minutes of playing little games with him, she asked to put him on the floor and check out his "scooting". After about a minute on his belly, he got very upset and did not want to be on the ground. So she rolled him over and began to exam his muscles and reflexes. She noticed that his legs are a little "floppy" and that they go into a frog-leg like position very easily. That is the result of low hip muscle tone in his legs and is the reason that he is not crawling or getting into a sitting position on his own. He is very strong in his upper body and has strong leg muscles, but his hip muscles are just not developing as strongly. He is able to pull himself up on things that are very steady like the couch, his crib, or a someone.
She mentioned there could be a couple of reasons for the low muscle tone. It could be genetic, but probably not since there is no one crippled in our family, it could be the white matter part of is brain that contains motor skill development or it could be his muscle mass. Because he is so strong in the legs, she feels certain that it is not his muscle tone, but to put her mind at ease, we did blood work to check out the muscle mass and the genetics. Feeling pretty confident that it is unlikely neither one of those...she requested that we get an MRI done on his brain to check the white matter. He is at a developmental rate of 8.5 months for his gross motor skills. WOW!!! Hard to hear! Dr. V tells us in the same breath, that she can guarantee us that he will walk by the time he is 2 years old. 2 years old.....WHAT??? I will admit, my heart dropped and I must have had the look of fear on my face, because right after that, she turns and says, "He can only progress from where he is now. He has to learn to sit up on his own first before he can walk. I cannot tell you if he will walk before then, but I can guarantee you that he will be walking by his 2nd birthday." I was a little thrown back by that. It seems like such a delay for him to not walk until he is 2 years old, but we have to build his muscles and make him strong and that takes time. She wants us to get him PT once a week and start working on developing his hip muscles. We have been in contact with the ECI (Early Childhood Intervention) to see about them coming into our home and helping us with the PT. This is just so minor compared to the other children we saw coming in and out of the center and I praise God that his is something that can be fixed and that all he will do is progress from where he is now. He is pulling up much more and is so strong when pulled to his feet. I just pray that with the PT, he gets stronger very quickly and that we can put this all behind us. I will post an update as soon as the blood work comes back and we get the MRI results. He is such a sweet little angel and it breaks my heart watching him get so frustrated when he knows how to do these things, he just physically cannot do them. I know that we have a journey ahead of us and I'm sure many, many tears to come from him, but I know that he can only get stronger from here. Please keep us in your daily prayers.
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